With police, fire, public works, and the public using the same wireless networks during a disaster, you can imagine the chances of not getting through or being dropped mid-call. To facilitate communications, first responders have lobbied for their own network since terrorists struck New York City and Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2001. After almost 20 years, they're finally on their way.
Late last year, all 50 states and the District of Columbia agreed to the implementation plan developed for them by AT&T as part of a 25-year, $47-billion contract signed by the U.S. Commerce Department's First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) to design, build, and maintain a nationally interoperable network. FirstNet was created by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, which also required the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set aside 20MHz of the 700MHz spectrum for the network. According to FCC, this particular spectrum band class -- 14 -- has excellent "propagation characteristics," meaning signals penetrate buildings and walls and cover larger geographic areas with less infrastructure.
Police and fire can't clear and repair roads, redirect traffic, remove debris, and restore utility services without public works. The federal government knows this, but confusion reigned when we began writing about FirstNet in 2012. Who'd control the network? Who'd be allowed to use it? States that had begun working on interoperability balked at being overruled by the federal government, which confused things further by providing grants to do so. Some said smart device proliferation and capability made FirstNet a boondoggle.
All that's more or less behind us, so the next step is making sure the proper players participate. People and property won't be completely protected during disasters unless public works is part of the three-legged response-and-recovery stool. If your community doesn't, you'll have to take the initiative to build the relationship.
"FirstNet is a game-changer, but it's critical that public works departments across the country work with neighboring other first responders to build and maintain relationships so they can work together seamlessly during times of crisis," says City of Gainesville, Fla., Public Works Director Philip R. Mann, PE. As chair of the American Public Works Association's (APWA) Emergency Management Committee, he works with colleagues from 42 other organizations on FirstNet’s Public Safety Advisory Committee to make sure your unique needs are addressed during and after deployment.
FirstNet will begin issuing work orders for AT&T to deploy the implementation plan, called a radio access network (RAN), developed for each state that includes full data encryption and end-to-end cybersecurity. In the meantime, as the award-winning former manager of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management notes, local government public agencies must sign up for the network (scroll to the bottom for coverage and rate plans). "There's nothing automatic about it. Verizon will be out talking to customers about what they can do to provide enhanced and 'dedicated' services; but they can't provide band 14, which is only being licensed to AT&T."
